Why would we focus on who our students are or will be next year when we don't have them as students anymore?
So what do we do? Focus on students as they are in our classrooms, as they will be in the past, or how to help them with what they didn't learn the previous year?
It seems to be a very thin line that we walk as educators.
Who is the student in front of us? Where did she come from, where is she now, and where will she be in a year?
I think most of us don't have enough time to contemplate these questions, but try to ponder where the student is at the beginning of the year as opposed to where she will be at the end of the year.
As a teacher, where should our focus be? Should we try to maximize our efforts on the NOW or on the FUTURE of our students?
And really, is there really any difference in how we look at it?
How can we best help our students achieve: by looking at who they are in the present, or in who they will be (or hope to become) in the future?
1 comment:
Don't you agree that if you focus on the now--enriching the lives of students every day that you work with them and "know" them, you are automatically focusing on their futures.
If you are working with kids at the appropriate developmental levels (Vygotsky's "zone" of proximal development) you are investing in who they are right now, this minute.
That investment has a future payoff...J. Wilhelm does a great job talking about just this issue in his "Reading Don't Fix No Chevy's: The Literate Lives of Young Men." I'll get that out. KES
P.S. It's a whole lot more fun too to work with "kids" at the ages they are rather than as pre-versions of who they might be. But we always keep in mind "who they are in the process of becoming," yes!!!
I love the Fr. philosopher, Gabriel Marcel's observation: "The presence of someone who hopes in me increases my being." Our work is to hope in kids. What better work is there!!
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